Executive Council considers expanding its standing committee structure
Episcopal News Service -- Memphis, Tennessee. October 6, 2009 [100609-03]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Episcopal Church's Executive Council informally reorganized itself October 6 in an effort to refocus its work on the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church.
During its Oct. 5-8 meeting at the Holiday Inn at the University of Memphis Fogelman Conference Center the council is devoting nearly half of its time to considering how it will live out its role and responsibility in the 2010-2012 triennium.
On Oct. 6, the members informally agreed to a proposal from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to form five committees, tentatively named Local Mission, Church-wide Mission, World Mission, Resources for Mission and Funding for Mission. Committee names may change slightly after the groups begin meeting October 7. The council must also amend its by-laws to accommodate the proposal.
The council had been divided into four standing committees -- Administration & Finance (A&F), Congregations in Ministry (CIM), National Concerns (NAC) and International Concerns (INC). At this meeting the members were asked to consider if that structure still serves the needs of the council and the church, and how to clarify their individual responsibilities.
Members of the Local Mission committee will focus on work with individuals, congregations and dioceses in the areas of congregational development, multiculturalism, ministry of the baptized, clergy, and education and formation.
Church Wide Mission will be charged with advocacy at a church-wide level for public policy issues that involve justice and peacemaking, anti-racism, care of the earth, health care, poverty, public education and prisons.
World Mission includes the church's work in partnership with the Anglican Communion and its ecumenical partners, along with considering the church's interfaith dialogues, Anglican Communion matters, Millennium Development Goals work and the work of Episcopal Relief and Development.
The Resources for Mission and Funding for Mission committees will split the functions of the A&F Committee, with the former set to handle Episcopal Church administration and governance issues and the latter to concentrate on budget and related matters.
During discussion of Jefferts Schori's proposal, the Rev. Dr. Lee Crawford of Vermont appeared to echo the sentiments of many council members when she said that the new committees are "what we're about and who we are."
The council began consideration of its structure with the Rev. Canon Mark Harris, who chairs the council's task force on its by-laws, presenting an overview of the history of that structure and the options about changing it. He asked the members to "challenge ourselves to consider what it means to be a missionary council."
Harris cited what he called "a prophetic warning" that fellow council member the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas issued at the end of his 1996 book "Fling out the Banner" when he suggested that the Episcopal Church needed a new model of governance beyond what he called a "regulatory agency" model if it was to avoid becoming "increasingly isolated from and peripheral to the ongoing life of the Anglican Communion and the wider Christian community." Harris said he would broaden that concern to include an increasing isolation from "parishes and the ongoing life of members of the Episcopal Church itself."
"Is there some way in which we can recapture the sense of the engagement with God's mission in the world, and by implication in our mission as Episcopalians to that end?" he asked. "Can we put our regulatory responsibilities as a corporate body into the context of a council gathered to proclaim good news in the context of the Episcopal Church?"
The committees are scheduled to meet for most of the day on October 7 (with the exception of time for disability sensitivity and anti-racism training).
In other action October 6, the council:
- heard that Council member Belton Ziegler, one of Province IV's representatives, will resign immediately due to family circumstances. The province will choose a person to fill out his term, which runs until General Convention in 2012.
- heard Chief Operating Officer Linda Watt describe the Episcopal Church Center's efforts to reconfigure its staff in light of the 2010-2012 budget, which is $23 million less than that for the 2007-2009 triennium. She outlined the plan to reconfigure the remaining staff after the reduced budget required elimination of a number of positions in the Episcopal Church's New York and regional offices.
Watt told the council that the remaining staff would be grouped in a single Department of Mission, led by two senior directors, that will include four program-based "mission teams:" Global Partnerships; Diocesan and Congregational Ministries; Lifelong Christian Formation and Vocation; and Ethnic, Multicultural, Social and Environmental Witness. Three other "specialized ministry groupings" (Legislative Advocacy for Peace and Justice, Episcopal Migration Ministries and Federal Ministries) will be part of the structure. In addition, she said, "a significant portion" of the staff's work will be carried out in "project working groups" that will draw staff from the other teams and groups.
This structure is different from the reorganization that occurred in September 2007. Watt told the council that the staff is "yearning for what you can give us in terms of the big picture" vision for its work. "We want to be your partners; we want to be your implementers; that's our job," she said.
During a later executive session, Watt briefed the council on staff layoffs required by the smaller budget.
The Executive Council carries out the programs and policies adopted by the General Convention, according to Canon I.4 (1)(a). The council is composed of 38 members, 20 of whom (four bishops, four priests or deacons and 12 lay people) are elected by General Convention and 18 (one clergy and one lay) by provincial synods for six-year terms, plus the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies. Twenty-one of the 38 members are new to the council with this meeting, having just been elected by General Convention and the provinces.
Coverage of the first day of council's Memphis meeting is here.